Not in the Cards Read online

  “Are we decided then?” Morgana interrupted. “Sandy will tell Vincent to watch out for the computer woman, and he’ll take it from there?”

  “Is there any more that we can do?” Sandy asked.

  “Not at the moment,” Misty said. “But on the off chance that I’m wrong, give me your hand.”

  Sandy held out her free hand, and Misty grabbed it and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she looked right at Sandy. “You’ll want to pack your bags because you’re off to Portland in the morning. And if you don’t kiss him, and kiss him good, when you see him, I will never speak to you again.”

  “I’m not going to Portland,” Sandy protested. “I have a job to do.”

  “If you don’t go to Portland and help this man out, none of us will have a place to do our jobs at all. Now go. Pack.”

  Sandy arrived in Portland at eleven o’clock and headed straight for the coffee shop where she’d arranged to meet Vincent. She checked her reflection in the car mirror, applied some more lip gloss, and squared her shoulders.

  Their conversation the night before had been brief, but she’d told him she was going to be in town and asked if they could have an early lunch. She smiled again when she remembered his response. “There is no one I’d rather see than you. Even twenty-four hours without you has been tortuous.”

  All guys might tell the “I’ll call you” white lie, but she didn’t think they often followed it up with an actual call and then heart-melting statements.

  She got out of the car, paid for parking, and then headed into the restaurant. She didn’t see him on her first glance around, so she grabbed a table by the window, ordered a Diet Coke, and tapped her foot nervously. When he walked in, she stood up so abruptly she nearly toppled the table over. She waved at him until she got his attention. When he reached in to brush her cheek with his lips, she turned, captured his lips with hers, and gave it her all.

  After a moment of no response long enough that she’d started to worry that she’d read the whole situation wrong, he leaned into her and moved his mouth against hers. Her tongue reached out, questing, and he opened his mouth to her. Their tongues danced together, and she slid her arms around his neck while his found purchase around her waist. They’d started to slide lower when she remembered where they were and broke off with a gasp.

  “Hi,” she said when she could talk without stuttering.

  “Hi yourself.”

  “It’s good to see you.” She blushed. She thought that kissing him would get the awkward out of the way, but the heat of his lips on hers was combining with the heat of her embarrassment and causing a flush to race over her entire body.

  “It’s very good to see you, too. You’ve no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

  “Why didn’t you, then?” She surprised herself with the boldness of her challenge.

  “I didn’t want to rush you. You’re just getting out of what, by all accounts, wasn’t the greatest marriage. I don’t want to be nothing but your rebound guy.”

  “I don’t think I’m good at casual,” she warned him.

  “Me, neither.” He held out a chair for her, and when she sat, he brushed her lower lip with his finger, and it was all she could do not to suck it into her mouth.

  Slow, she reminded herself. Her stomach growled, and she picked up a menu. “Lunch?” she asked, trying hard not to feel awkward and failing miserably.

  Vincent reached out and took her hand. “I’m so glad you kissed me. I was going crazy with the thought of your lips and am not sure how much longer I would’ve held out.”

  Sandy smiled at him and squeezed his hand gently. “I’m glad, too.”

  They ordered coffee and sandwiches, and after the waiter departed, Sandy said, “I have something to tell you. I don’t know how much it’ll help, but Misty thinks it’s important.”

  “I have something to tell you, too.”

  “You first,” they said at the same time.

  Sandy grinned. “I’ll go first. You said that the only people who knew you were starting an investigation into the missing funds were in IT, right? Was one of them a woman about my height, but with gray eyes, pixie-cut blond hair, and slight, almost elfin features?”

  “Yes. Why? Do you know her?”

  “Not as well as Aaron does, but I can tell you she has a butterfly tattoo at the small of her back and some kind of Hanji inked on her left butt cheek.”

  Vincent stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, but she saw the second the light bulb went off. “The woman Aaron cheated on you with?”

  “He’d told me she was ‘a nobody from IT,’ and Misty got her face from Aaron when they shook hands the other night. She’s not sure what her role was but said that Aaron views her as the linchpin on which his whole house of cards rests. Somehow, if you can find her and see what she knows, everything will fall apart.”

  “Wow.” Vincent leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest. “Her name is Samantha, and I wouldn’t have pegged her as the type to participate in something like this.”

  “I’m obviously not the biggest fan of hers. She knew Aaron was married when she slept with him, but it is possible he used her the same way he used me and everyone else. She could’ve just been a means to an end. Who knows what other kind of information he teased from her. He told me it was a one-time thing, but the evidence in his cell phone and emails proves otherwise. They were involved for months. And it’d take at least that long to plan and execute the theft of that much money. I don’t know how you can use this information to clear your name, but it’s all I have.”

  “This is more than I expected. I came to Portland because I’d made the final decision not to sell Oracle Bay to Darwin, and needed to meet with my lawyer—who up until now has urged me to settle this out of court—and my accountant to see what can be done to avoid official charges. This information might be enough to grant me more time. Thank you so much.”

  “You’re welcome. You’d have done the same for me, I’m sure.”

  “To save your town? Absolutely. But you didn’t have to come in person. You could’ve told me on the phone last night.”

  “And miss my chance to kiss you? Ha. No. Misty said I needed to do that, too.”

  Vincent groaned in mock abjection and buried his face in his hands. “Does everyone know we hadn’t kissed yet?”

  “Town full of psychics? Definitely.”

  “Your friends are going to be pains in my ass, aren’t they?”

  Warmth bloomed through her body as she absorbed the meaning in his words. She had friends. Real friends. And a man who was teasing her about them. With affection. She smiled. “Yeah, they really are. But as long as you don’t sell the town out from under them, I think they’ll remain tolerable.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk about. I am going to sell Oracle Bay.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sandy leaned back into the recliner she was sitting in at Drew’s place. She’d returned from Portland in early evening after a lingering goodbye with Vincent. They were waiting for Morgana—who’d threatened not to show up—and Paska, who’d gone to retrieve her.

  Sandy refused to breathe a word of what’d transpired in Portland until the whole gang was present.

  “At least tell us about the smooching,” Ceri said. “Did you or did you not kiss?”

  Sandy felt her face heat up, and she pressed her champagne flute against her flushed cheek. “That is none of your business, Ceri. None of any of your guys’ business. I’m not one to kiss and tell.”

  “Then there was kissing,” Misty pounced on the word. “Excellent. I’m so glad you listened to my advice.”

  “Your advice? I’ve been advising her to jump him for longer than you have.”

  “Oh my god, you guys. You are all being ridiculous. Fine. If it’s that important to you. Yes. I kissed him. And then he kissed me back. And then later, there was another kiss. Are you happy now?”

  “If this is th
e emergency information I put a bra on for, I am not happy,” Morgana said, trailing Paska into the house. “Wine.”

  Drew rolled his eyes and poured Morgana a glass of Cab. “Of course not. A group text would’ve sufficed for an update on Sandy’s sex life.”

  “If you ever initiate a group text about my sex life, Drew Hardy, I will end you.” Sandy pointed her finger dramatically towards him and tried to look fierce. Based on the helpless laughter he dissolved into, it might not have worked.

  “Can we get on with it? My shows won’t binge watch themselves.”

  Sandy relayed the conversation she’d had with him. “And then he said he was going to sell Oracle Bay anyway! I nearly died.”

  “What?” Ceri said. “I trusted him to do the right thing.”

  “This is the decision, isn’t it?” Misty asked. “The one on which everything hinges. Did he choose correctly?”

  Sandy grinned. “He said he’ll be back in a couple days to wrap things up with the developer and make his formal proposal. He is going to offer every last bit of property he owns in Oracle Bay to Misty.”

  “I don’t have a million dollars,” she said. She didn’t look disheartened, though.

  “That’s the best part! He’s working things out with his lawyer and accountant to sell it to you for a thousand dollars, give or take.”

  “Is that even possible?” Ceri asked. “It sounds shady.”

  “The lawyer and tax guy seem to think so. Vincent will have to pay taxes on the appraised value and won’t be able to take a business loss because the appraised value and the sale value will be so wildly different, but the paperwork’s being drawn up.”

  “A thousand dollars?” Misty’s jaw hung open, and she stared at Sandy.

  “One thousand dollars and Oracle Bay is yours, free and clear. Vincent said if you don’t have the cash on hand to pay for it along with the buyer’s fee, he’ll lend it to you at one percent interest rate.”

  “Oh, I can swing this,” Misty said. “When will he be back?”

  “Either the day after tomorrow or the day after that,” Sandy said. “He’s meeting with the firm’s lawyers tomorrow and is hoping to have Samantha show up for that. He’s working with his own lawyers to talk to her ahead of time. They’re hoping to determine her alleged level of guilt before that so that they can—in his words—‘strong arm’ her into turning state’s evidence and rolling over on Aaron.”

  “Do you think you could possibly fit a few more metaphors into that sentence?” Drew asked.

  “Sorry, I’m just really excited.”

  “It’s been an eventful day,” Ceri agreed. “Misty gets to buy the town, your boyfriend gets to maybe get off scot-free, and you finally got the snogging you deserve.”

  “When you put it that way, it does sound like a busy day,” Sandy said, willing herself not to blush nor to overthink the ‘boyfriend’ label. “That doesn’t even take into account the drive to Portland and back.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t stay,” Misty smirked. “I’m sure Vincent could’ve found a place for you.”

  “We might’ve gotten to kissing, but not any further. Yet. Give us some time, woman.”

  Morgana was clearly getting impatient with the banter. “This is excellent news. Next time, though, I wouldn’t be opposed to a group text.”

  “I would be,” Jezebel said. “I don’t want to find out that Oracle Bay is being sold to Misty over text. That is such awesome news that it needs to be toasted. She’s been such a great property manager the last five years; I’m so excited for her to take this on and be in charge for real!”

  Misty finally was losing the glazed look she’d had since Sandy’d shared the news. “Oh my god, you guys. I’m going to own Oracle Bay. You are all my bitches, now!”

  Morgana laughed before she could stop herself. “You don’t own me. The rest of them are fair game, though.”

  “This will drive Andy crazy,” Misty said. “I can’t wait to tell him I’m the boss of him and that he needs to get a liquor license, stat.”

  “He’ll never do it,” Drew said. “I’m more interested in the effect this news will have on the rest of your tenants. The ones that are a little more…normal, shall we say?”

  “Andy’s not normal?” Sandy asked. “He seems normal.”

  “Does he, really?” Drew asked. “Think about it.”

  Sandy thought back over her couple of encounters with Andy. “Okay, maybe there’s something a little odd, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

  “None of us can. Well, except maybe Morgana, but she’s not talking,” Drew said.

  “It’s not my story to tell.”

  “She always says that when she’s avoiding dishing the good gossip.”

  “I know what he is,” Paska said, an uncharacteristic mischievous grin playing around the corners of his mouth. “But I’m not talking, either. It’s the kind of thing you don’t want to say out loud—could draw some unwanted attention.”

  “I have a question,” Sandy said. She waved her hand towards Paska and Morgana. “Not about Andy. Not really. More about…us. This town. Oracle Bay. It occurred to me that I didn’t really ask a lot of questions at the beginning, and they’ve been brewing, waiting for a good time.”

  “We were pretty busy convincing you that you were, indeed, legit from the start,” Misty said. “It didn’t seem the time to get into the rest of what we know about this town.”

  “So there is more than a high concentration of gifted psychics?”

  “Much, much more,” Misty said.

  “On that note, I’m leaving. Please refrain from calling any emergency meetings for the next three days. I am officially on vacation.”

  “Don’t forget to fill out the form and submit it within two business days of starting your vacation.”

  Morgana’s response was a middle finger as she left the room. Misty roared with laughter. “She never fills out the leave request form and always expects to be paid.”

  “She always is paid,” Ceri pointed out. “You’d never let the rest of us get away with that.”

  “Are you going to tell Morgana no?” Jezebel asked.

  “Fair point,” Ceri conceded.

  “So, tell me more about Oracle Bay,” Sandy said.

  After Paska and Jezebel had also excused themselves and Drew had topped off everyone’s drinks, they made themselves comfortable in Drew’s living room.

  “Legend has it that long before Oracle Bay was a town, it was where the gods went to hide,” Drew intoned solemnly.

  Ceri threw a pillow at him. “Oh, stop it. You’re being ridiculous.” She turned to Sandy. “We don’t know the true origins of the town, but he’s right. Legend—if by legend you mean that one time we managed to get Paska drunk—says that this Bay was where the old gods came when they needed a break from their divine duties or a place to hide if they’d been particularly naughty.”

  “I imagine Zeus spent a lot of time here, then,” Sandy said.

  “Love a woman who knows her Greek mythology,” Ceri said. “Something about their presence here changed the town. Whether it was too much divine power in the same place for too long or something else, it created a kind of…bubble…here. It attracts people, and the people who are ‘other’ find themselves unwilling to leave once they’ve settled. Our type of people—the psychics—are the most numerous. Hence the name, I guess. But there have been others over the years. I’ve only lived here for a couple years so haven’t met anyone else—except whatever Andy is, I guess, but the others have better stories.”

  “We still get the occasional demigod,” Drew said, so matter-of-factly that Sandy was left gaping as the words hit her.

  “Demigod? Are you kidding?”

  “Not in the least. I expect we get a god or two in disguise from time to time. It’s a vortex of mystical energy, and eventually, everyone who’s connected to the otherworldly powers that be stop by, at least for a while.”

  “You’ve actually
met a demigod?” Sandy whispered. She’d been okay with a psychics’ union, but this might be taking things a bit too far. Perhaps she’d fallen in with some kind of weird cult, and they were brainwashing her as she sat here. She eyed her prosecco suspiciously. All the alcohol was merely a way to get her to let down her guard.

  “Just because he seduced you and left you broken-hearted doesn’t mean he was related to a god,” Misty said.

  “Did you see him?” Drew protested. “How could anyone mortal be that beautiful?”

  “You were not in the best frame of mind when he wandered into town. He was absolutely your rebound guy,” Ceri said. “I don’t care what attributes you want to ascribe to him now—you were emotionally compromised.”

  “As much as I want to hear more about Drew’s salacious past,” Sandy said. “Can we return to the subject at hand? Demigods? What about actual gods? What else is out there? Vampires? Werewolves? Evil witches?”

  “My salacious past is a lot more interesting than a bunch of creatures of the night,” Drew sniffed.

  Ceri rolled her eyes. “None of those last ones, as far as anyone knows,” she said. “But of course there are gods. Didn’t we just finish telling you the origin of Oracle Bay? Very few of the gods were well-known for their ability to keep their pants on, and there are tons of people running around this world who are descended from their children. For every divine begetting that made it into our collective mythos, there are probably a dozen more than didn’t. My theory, so far not disputed by anyone else, is that all of us,” she waved her hand to encompass everyone in the room, “are descended from a god who had a special connection to soothsaying. I also believe the gods are still out there, but because they’ve lost a large basis of support in terms of believers, they’re not as powerful nor as present.”

  Sandy mulled it over. “So gods. And demigods. But no vampires. Anything else?”

  “In the realm of gods and demigods falls angels and demons, I think,” Misty said. “They are basically the divine beings of the more monotheistic traditions.”